3rd July
Marcus set off on his long awaited trip to RAF Wittering near Peterborough for a week long camp with the RAF. Spencer smirked as he helped to load Marcus’s size 13 boots onto the school minibus. They were so big that he had to push them under the seat. As Spencer said in the car as we continued on for a day at Wisley. “Marcus will have to sharpen his ideas up a bit if he is on an RAF Camp”.
We had a lovely time at Wisley, where they had a special demonstration about soft fruit growing. We returned home tired but happy and relaxed. We had just sat down to a Chinese takeaway when the ‘phone rang. Spencer answered, and it was Marcus. It soon became apparent that he had forgotten something. Spencer came off the ‘phone looking a bit crestfallen. Apparently when they arrived at the camp, Marcus was tasked with sorting out the billets leaving someone else in charge of unloading the minibus. By the time he realised that his boots were nowhere to be seen, the minibus was well on its way back to school.
Normally this wouldn’t be an insurmountable problem as there are always stores at these RAF places where you can get bits of kit, but on 6th July Marcus had been selected to represent his school in a Cadet parade down the Mall in London to Buckingham Palace to celebrate 150 years of the Cadet force in the UK. In any case there were no size 13 boots in the stores.
4th July
Spencer took the Bentley over to Marcus’s school to retrieve the boots from the minibus. We then spent a lovely afternoon at a dear friend’s BBQ in Chineham. The food was cooked to perfection and I remarked to Spencer later that is was a huge improvement on the rather cremated offerings he provides when we hold a BBQ at the Manor. We had to make our excuses and leave to drive to RAF Halton to reunite the boots with their owner. This task in itself was beset with problems, as nobody on the whole RAF site seemed to be aware of the existence of 500 RAF Cadets. After getting no joy with the man at the other end of the intercom on the main gate it was left to me to march under the security barrier and round to a likely looking aircraft hanger. A security car soon appeared and after a bit of explaining to the man with the machine gun, a red faced Marcus was produced and the boots were handed over.